Image Details

Werner Braun

Inside out. This unusual view, from within one of the Qumran caves, takes in the ruins of the Qumran community, atop the facing cliffs, and the Dead Sea in the background. In this community on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, a Jewish sect, most likely the Essenes, settled in approximately 150–140 D.C.E. and wrote or accumulated at least 800 scrolls, which they placed in nearby caves for safekeeping. Known today as the Dead Sea Scrolls, these texts include every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, as well as documents on the sect’s beliefs and practices.